Plans to convert listed 18th century building into flats in Wellington is rejected
A proposal to convert a listed eighteenth-century building into flats in Wellington has been turned down by planners.
Portico House, on Vineyard Road, served as a clinic and a drug rehabilitation centre in the late 20th century, but is currently vacant and has a 1960s-built extension, Donnington House, at its rear.
SRD Property Developments Ltd applied to place five flats in Portico House and partially demolish the front wall to create access to car parking spaces at the front.
Telford and Wrekin Council’s planning department refused permission.
In a report, officers said the project “does not respect and respond positively” to its historic setting, “and entails the loss of privacy for neighbouring properties”.
A design statement, prepared by Shrewsbury-based planning agent David Humphreys on behalf of SRD, said three-storey Portico House was grade II listed, and his client planned “negligible” changes to its exterior.
Objections
The plans also included converting Donnington House into four two-storey homes and building three bungalows on attached land to the north.
The 24-space parking area for these homes would have been accessed off Crescent Road, while a dropped kerb would have been installed on Vineyard Road to allow cars to enter and leave three more spaces in the Portico House front yard.
A planners’ report said removing part of the front yard wall “would represent harm through the loss of the continuous roadside boundary, and open up the site to views of hardstanding and parked vehicles, to the detriment of the setting of the listed building”.
It added: “It also appears that the proposals do not include removal of the existing access lift – which appears to be an unauthorised addition in itself.”
Wellington Town Council was consulted and objected, saying the plans “represent an overdevelopment” and raising concerns about “access issues to the rear of the property”.
Two objection letters were received from the site’s neighbours, and one of these pointed out that the access lane leading to the rear car park is “only one car wide and would form a dangerous crossroads due to the volume of traffic using Crescent Road”.
A heritage statement, prepared by historic building consultant Richard Morris and submitted with SRD’s planning application, said “little is known” of Portico House’s early history, but by the late 20th century it had been converted into a clinic and served as a drug rehabilitation centre until recently.
